Name Peter Wilson | ||
Peter Wilson, CBE, was an English auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby's.
Wilson father was Sir Matthew Wilson of Eshton Hall, Gargrave, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Eton College and at New College Oxford. He worked for British Intelligence during World War II, in London and Washington DC.
He appeared as a "castaway" on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 26 September 1966.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and was made honorary life president of Sotheby's in 1980, when he stood down as chairman.
He died in Paris in 1984, after being in a coma for a week. He was 71.
Wilson is mentioned in the Ian Fleming story "The Property of a Lady", commissioned by Sotheby's for use in their annual journal, The Ivory Hammer, and which was adapted as the auction sequence in the film Octopussy.